Santiago Álvarez

Santiago Álvarez Román March 8 1919 May 20 1998 was a Cuban documentary filmmaker and a central figure in revolutionary Latin American cinema After studying in the United States he returned to Cuba in the mid1940s where he worked as a music archivist for television and became active in Communist Party circles Following the Cuban Revolution he was a founding member of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry ICAIC and went on to direct its influential weekly Latin American Newsreel shaping a new model of politically engaged documentary production Álvarez became internationally known for short films that combined found footage photographs animation and music through rapid associative editingoften described as nervous montage His bestknown works include Now 1964 addressing racial discrimination in the United States LBJ 1968 a satirical critique of US imperialism and 79 Springs 1969 a poetic tribute to Ho Chi Minh In 1968 he collaborated with Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino on The Hour of the Furnaces a landmark fourhour documentary on neocolonialism and political struggle in Latin America Across dozens of films Álvarez documented music culture revolutionary movements and authoritarian regimes throughout the Americas and beyond His work influenced generations of political filmmakers and he was later acknowledged by JeanLuc Godard in Histoires du cinéma Álvarez died in Havana in 1998 from Parkinsons disease and was buried in Colón Cemetery